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How to Get the Most Out of Remote Meetings

For all of its advantages - flexibility, no commute, a greater ability to tailor your personal work style - working remotely isn't without its challenges. Often, you feel them most when you're relying on technology to help you participate in a meeting as effectively as if you were sitting in the conference room back at Corporate HQ.

For many workers, this is more easily said than done. For too many, signing into a remote meeting requires downloading special apps, entering multiple PINS, and ensuring you have a robust Internet connection. Fortunately, ShoreTel Connect eliminates those hassles by connecting you to the meeting with a single click, allowing you to join through whatever device you prefer, and offering the tools you need to easily share documents, look up notes from earlier discussions, or reach out to a colleague whose input is needed on the fly.

Such tools allow you to make the same kind of contribution as you would in person. With that in mind, here are some ways to make the most of your remote meetings.

Know Where You Stand
In the days leading up to the meeting, background yourself on all of the issues included in the agenda, identify any questions you may have, and develop a feel for how you believe the team should proceed. While you don't want to be so locked into an opinion that you blind yourself to your colleagues' points of view, you should be familiar enough with each topic that you can make offer appropriate input when you need to.

Know What You'll Say
Even if the meeting's organizer hasn't assigned you a specific topic to cover, make a list of points you want to make during the discussion, and prepare any supporting materials you'll want to share with the group. With ShoreTel Connect, you can present documents, videos, images and more - just as you would on-site.

Avoid Distractions
According to CNBC, executives consider 67% of meetings to be failures. Considering that numerous other surveys show that participants regularly multitask during meetings, that's no surprise. So avoid the temptation to check your email, surf the Web or do other work during meeting time. Be sure your door's closed and the room is quiet. While human nature is giving way to shrinking attention spans, you'll find that discussions proceed more quickly and your team will accomplish more when you're fully engaged.

Be 'Present'
The old saying goes that "decisions are made by those who show up." But showing up involves more than connecting. ShoreTel Connect provides the capabilities you need to fully participate in the meeting, but it's up to you to take advantage of them. That means you have to be prepared to speak up when it's appropriate, but also have materials to share so others can see your thought processes and have something to focus on while you talk.
Prepare ahead of time, be focused and use ShoreTel Connect's capabilities, and distance won't be a factor in the quality of the contributions you make.